‘Baramulla’ Movie Review: Manav Kaul Leads a Gripping Supernatural Thriller
Director Aditya Suhas Jambhale captures the mood, suspense, and eerie atmosphere of Kashmir with precision. Yet, once the mist clears, the echoes of an ‘us versus them’ narrative become more evident beneath the film’s emotions and mystery.
“Usually, films based on the Kashmir conflict are told through characters in army fatigues.”
In Baramulla, Aditya Suhas Jambhale, known for Article 370, shifts focus to the Jammu & Kashmir Police, centering the story on DSP Ridwaan Sayyid. Torn between duty and distrust, Ridwaan faces conflicting perceptions — seen as rigid by colleagues, an infidel by separatists, and a traitor by his own daughter.
Assigned to investigate the disappearance of children in Baramulla, Ridwaan finds the case far from simple. The vanishings seem tied to rising acts of stone-pelting and unrest in the region. Simultaneously, a sinister supernatural presence haunts his official home, carrying unsettling remnants of a dark past.
Haunted by trauma from an old operation, Ridwaan’s struggle intertwines the personal with the professional. The story unfolds as a poignant and atmospheric thriller where logic and the supernatural merge through the character’s emotional depth and internal reckoning.
Aditya forgoes postcard-perfect imagery of Kashmir, instead revealing the fractures beneath the snow-covered beauty, offering a raw and thought-provoking narrative filled with emotion and mystery.
Author’s Summary
This review explores how Baramulla blends supernatural tension and political undercurrents through a haunted officer’s moral and emotional turmoil in Kashmir.